In the past few weeks, the world has found itself sitting on edge following the ominous developments in Crimea, a former territory of Ukraine, which has now been annexed by Russia. To all intents and purposes, this development poses an existential threat to the security of Europe, and by extension the whole world, due to the hardline posturing of the prominent actors. As the crisis there continues to unfold, it is pertinent to realise that those involved are not only big powers, but have between them awesome military capabilities of destroying the entire human civilisation in the event of an armed conflict. For some time now, the world has been holding its breadth and watching anxiously as Europe and America square up with Russia for the political soul of Ukraine.
The present crisis started as a protest by some group of activists against the government of former President Viktor Yanukovych, following the latter’s refusal to sign a historical political and trade agreement with the European Union. Yanukovych had flown to Moscow where he and Russian President Vladmir Putin announced that Russia would buy $15 billion in Ukrainian debt and slash the price Kiev paid for its gas. That agreement enraged many Ukrainians who took to the streets demanding that Yanukovych rather sign the EU deal. As the demonstrations wore on, President Yanukovych signed a sweeping anti-protest law that barred people from wearing helmets and masks to rallies and setting up tents and sound equipment without prior police permission. For three months, thousands of demonstrators took over the Maidan (Independence) Square vowing not to leave until Yanukovych stepped down.
The demonstrations drew a parallel to the 2004 Orange Revolution, which booted Yanukovych, then a prime minister, from office. Even when in January this year, he offered the opposition a package of concessions in which they would nominate a prime minister, the protesters were still not mollified. The demonstrations took a more violent turn in February when more than 20 people were killed in the Square as the government sent in the police to disperse them. The fallout from that debacle led to the sacking of Yanukovych by the Parliament and his eventual exile in Russia.
Sadly, any voices of reason and moderation over what is happening in Ukraine have been muted so far. Rather, all stripes of military hawks and war mongers have taken the centre stage, thereby bringing back memories of the Cold War years that pitted the West, led by America, against the East, led by Russia.
For now, America has been leading other western countries in imposing a raft of sanctions on some prominent Russians and institutions in order to force a change in the policy of that country over Crimea. So far, that has not yielded the desired outcome. On the contrary, Russia is increasing its troops deployments in the Crimea and has even gone ahead to seize all Ukrainian military bases and assets on the peninsula.
Moscow’s argument for its action is that Crimea is now part of Russia following the recent referendum by the inhabitants to join it. Though the governments in Kiev and other western countries dismissed the referendum as illegal, Russia insisted that the voter turnout and results showed that the people of Crimea were enthusiastic of returning to their roots.
Historically, Crimea has been part of Russia and was only given to Ukraine in 1954 by then premier Nikita Khrushchev, himself a Ukrainian to mark the 300th anniversary of the country’s inclusion in the Russian Empire. Unsurprisingly, many in Russia see the “donation” as illegitimate and longed for the day Crimea would be returned to its origin. But in doing so, Russia has gone ahead to disregard the feelings of Ukrainians, who see the referendum as not only contrived but accuses their giant neighbour of bullying and land grab. Unfortunately, Russia is refusing to recognise the new government in Kiev, which it dubs illegitimate, having come to power through legislative coup after overthrowing that led by Viktor Yanukovych.
Ominously, the present standoff is not only dangerous to the interest of both countries, it does not bode well for world peace, as any miscalculation or further escalation could lead to an all out military confrontation. We therefore, call on Russia and Ukraine, including other stakeholders, to seek peaceful ways of resolving the present crisis in order to save Europe and the world from avoidable catastrophe.
National Mirror
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